Carnage : 1983 | William afton x reader |

Café. - 12

Wow the title of the chapter is soo authentic guys🫣

The bell above the diner door chimed softly as we stepped inside, the sound bright and almost cheerful in a way that felt foreign after the suffocating silence of the old building. But my chest still felt tight. A tension I wasn't able to shake off.

This place was the opposite of Fredbear's, warmer, cozier. 

The hum of customer's conversation was vastly different to the screaming kids I usually heard. The scent of coffee and fried onions drifting through the air. It wrapped around me like a blanket I didn't realize I'd needed.

William placed a hand lightly at the small of my back as he guided me toward a booth near the window. It was subtle—barely there—but I felt it. My spine straightened instinctively.

He slid into the seat across from me, sleeves still rolled up, dark hair slightly damp from the rain. In the soft amber light, he looked... different. Less shadowed. Less sharp.

More like a person. 

"Eh..- You look like you're still mentally tearing apart floorboards," he said, watching me over the rim of the menu, a faint hint of an amused grin on his lips. 

"I am," I muttered, though my voice lacked its earlier bite. "There was something there. I know there was."

He didn't dismiss me. He never did that outright. Instead, he leaned back slightly, studying me in that quiet, deliberate way that always made me feel like he was measuring more than just my words.

"What did you feel?" he asked calmly.

I blinked. He asked the questions no one ever did before, and it felt refreshinf. 

"Feel?"

"At the diner," he clarified. "You work on instinct as much as logic. What was your instinct telling you?"

I hesitated, my eyes trailing back down to my fidgity hands.

"That something was... wrong," I admitted. "Not just structurally. Not just maintenance issues. It felt deliberate." 

My fingers traced the edge of the laminated menu without realizing before looking back at his face. 

"Like someone wanted it to look abandoned. But only in certain places."

His gaze sharpened, but his expression stayed mild.

"That's interesting," he said softly. "You always think in layers like that?"

Heat crept up my neck. "I don't know. I just... notice when things don't line up."

"I've noticed that about you."

Guy's been observing me.. closer than I realized. The thought sent another chill down my body. The way he said it made my pulse shift unevenly.

The waitress came by, and he ordered for both of us without hesitation—coffee for him, earl grey tea for me. I corrected him when he was about to order coffee for me too. When she left, silence settled between us again, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It felt closer than before. Smaller.

"You live alone," he said after a moment, casual. Too casual.

I looked up. "Yeah."

"For long?"

"A couple years."

He nodded, stirring his coffee slowly. "That can't be easy."

I gave a small shrug, almost scoffing until I remembered that might've been a little too forward.